Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 27, 1994 TAG: 9403270081
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHIBA, JAPAN LENGTH: Medium
Bonaly gave them a piece of her mind.
The French skater first refused to join Japan's Sato and bronze medalist Tanja Szewczenko of Germany on the awards podium Saturday night. Then she quickly took off her silver medal.
Asked later what message she meant to convey, Bonaly said, "It's not right."
When she tried to succeed with technique, she said, she had been told she wasn't artistic enough.
"When I change to just normal skating, that's not good, too. I don't know what I have to do. It's crazy," she said.
The vote was close. Sato, a stylist with dizzying footwork, received higher artistic marks - six 5.9s of a possible 6.0 and three 5.8s - and the first-place votes of five of the nine judges.
The Japanese university student also received a standing ovation, and a barrage of bouquets. Teddy bears were thrown on the ice.
Her technique was rated 5.7 and 5.8.
Bonaly received mostly 5.8s and 5.9s for her technique in an ambitious program that included a triple toe loop-half loop-triple salchow-double toe loop sequence and back-to-back triple jumps. She touched her hand to the ice, however, on one later triple loop, and had landed on the ice before completing the last turn of her triple-triple combination.
Her artistic marks ranged from 5.5 to 5.9, and four judges ranked her first. But one rated her third, behind Szewczenko.
Bonaly, 20, arrived late at the medalists' news conference and said she was "fed up."
"This is a championship, not [a place] to do just like everybody else. It's not right," Bonaly said.
For both skaters, it was a great opportunity for a world title. All three Olympic medalists were absent. Champion Oksana Baiul of the Ukraine was recovering from a leg injury suffered during practice in Lillehammer. Silver medalist Nancy Kerrigan of the United States was resting, and bronze medalist Chen Lu of China withdrew at the last moment with a broken foot. Bonaly had been fourth at the Olympics and Sato fifth.
Bonaly, a four-time European champion, also was runner-up at last year's World Championships, but never has won an Olympic medal. Sato's best previous world finish was fourth, last year.
In Kerrigan's absence, 13-year-old Michelle Kwan of Torrance, Calif., came to the United States' rescue. With a nearly clean program, she placed eighth in the free skating and eighth overall, moving up from 11th after the technical program.
The top 10 finish allows the Americans to send two women to the Worlds next year. Otherwise, only one could have gone.
"I felt really good," Kwan said. "I'm really happy that it ended this way."
Japan also had a world champion, jumping sensation Midori Ito, in 1989.
Sato landed her jumps cleanly, starting with a triple lutz, but turned one triple toe loop into a double.
Sato shrugged off Bonaly's behavior, saying that like Sato herself, "she has been working for a medal for a long time. She must have been overwhelmed with disappointment."
But Sato's Canadian-based coach, Peter Dunfield, said, "It shows poor sportsmanship. . . . If you're a sportsperson, you have to be able to handle the agony."
He added: "Bonaly skated pretty well. When everybody skates close to their best, it comes right down to who is the best skater. Yuka was the best skater."
Bonaly's coach, Alain Giletti, suggested before the competition that Bonaly might try a rare quadruple jump, something only a few men have done in competition. But she didn't, nor did she try a 3 1/2-revolution triple axel jump, despite practicing it regularly. She did two double axels.
Canada's Josee Chouinard, third going into Saturday's competition, fell three times and faded to fifth.
Canada had its successes, however. Elvis Stojko won the men's title with superb jumping, including a quad, and Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler nearly succeeded in defending their world pairs championship despite Brasseur's constant pain from a cracked rib.
They were edged by Russia's Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. Another Russian twosome, Oksana Gritschuk and Evgeni Platov, won the ice dancing championship.
by CNB